林語堂譯的《美國獨立宣言》

這就是林語堂譯的《美國獨立宣言》和英文原文：

咱們國事亂到這般田地，叫咱們不得不跟（英國）皇上分家，自起爐灶，除了老天爺以外，誰也不要管誰，所以這會子總應向大家交個賬，說個明白，叫人家懂得這是怎麼一回事，別疑心了咱們是在做什麼坑崩拐騙蒙的好勾當。
　　咱們不會歪纏，就是這麼幾名話。一則，你我大家比起人家都是一只鼻子兩只眼楮，不認輸誰，說不定比人家還強的多著呢；二則，誰也別想貶卻咱們的身分資格；三則，一個人要怎麼活就可以怎麼活，要怎麼玩就可以怎麼玩，要到哪兒去就可以到哪兒去，只要不礙著旁人就得了。
　　什麼鳥政府不放咱們這樣，便是王八蛋。
　　還有，老百姓要什麼政府就可自己做主，不干人家的鳥事。什麼政府不給咱們這樣就得滾他的蛋，再扶一個出來頂替。固然，象那些南美洲的傻子渾人，或者象什麼共產黨，天天革命，也不成個樣子。或者衙門里老爺一做岔了事便革一回命，也是不成的。有時候，老爺們吞款舞弊，作惡為非，咱們閉著眼兒裝不見，比起傻子渾人共產黨天天革命還好，你只要不是什麼無來由的，還能說聲不是嗎？但是國事混亂到這個分兒，一個人什麼身分兒都沒有了，任人當奴才看，到這會子，大家就得合攏來革那些狗官僚的命兒，另叫一班人來，給監視著，不讓他們大模大樣干他們偷雞的勾當。咱們十三州老百姓就是這麼一句話，罪受夠了，再混也混不下去。
當今皇上喬治登基以來，政事就是一團糟，誰不服氣來同他辦交涉，就是一把拳頭叫你吃，這還有什麼天理麼？咱們同算一下賬給你瞧。
咱們一體通過的條陳，他總批駁下來，咱們人人反對的條例，他倒給欽此了。
咱們有什麼呈文，非他親眼瞧過不成，呈文一上去，他卻向口袋里一放，裝著忘了，你同他提起，只給你一個不睬。
　　人家到宮里去呈請他立個新法，他就是這麼一套︰要末，把議會封起來，讓他稱孤道寡，孤行己意，不然，便是一個行，兩個不行。
　　他叫議會到那兒嶺外天邊三家村上去開會，樂得沒人肯去，讓他去一意橫行霸道。
議員去找他，說什麼好歹，他就是一溜不見，送他們回家。
議院封了，要叫開又不肯開，政事沒人管，成個無法無天的天下。
他哄人家不要來咱們十三州。誰要來，也不讓有報紙看，人家一看也不肯來了，就是來了，也不給田地，不得不回去，有的索性就不來。
　　他跟法官通同作弊，就不肯出錢多用幾個官吏，人家有案子，三年兩載還不見個動靜，不發下來，只好認倒霉空手回去。
　　法官有什麼不順從他的意旨，就得滾蛋，官俸又不發，叫他們先來孝敬老天爺，不然也別想拿一個大子。
高興起了，就添了什麼司什麼員，安排一些不見經傳的人小，錢向咱們老百姓腰包里拿，不管你情願不情願。
一個好好的太平天下，養了一大班丘八，驚擾百姓，咱們怎麼抗議也沒用。
他放著這些丘八作惡為非，橫行霸道，不掛腰刀的人只好听他們排比。
他放貪官污吏到處作孽，一朝權在手，無惡不作，干起以下的事來︰
　　叫一些毫無用處人人討厭的丘八駐扎民家里。
　　丘八殺人，便做個圈套，放他們逍遙法外。
　　管人家的事。
　　征苛捐雜稅，也不問一問咱們繳的稅項有個繳稅的道理沒有。
　　把人捉將官里去，人家要叫百姓陪審，不讓陪審。
　　把人無端趕出國外，事案是此地發的，叫人家到天邊海外去受審。
　　放幾個壞蛋充我們鄰國的官員，慢慢的擴展，希望有一天把咱們也吞下去，同他們一般腐敗。
　　把憲法當做把戲，人人說好沒人說壞的法律，他偏取消，讓他一人去瞎干。
　　他把議院關了門，就象他一個人獨干比別人干得好。
　　現在一不做二不休，索性跟咱們開戰，咱們還認什麼皇上，做什麼臣子？
　　他把城也燒了，人也殺了，比狗還不如，在海上還要興師問罪。
　　他雇些荷蘭雜種來打咱們，教他們只要打得過咱們，可以隨意搶掠，什麼萬國公法都不顧了。
　　咱們自己人在海上給他捉去，不管願意不願意，就迫著拿起槍把殺咱們同胞。
　　他唆使印第安生番，給他們槍火，教他們打死咱們的男女老少。
　　每回他這樣干，咱們就不服同他反抗，每回咱們不服同他反抗，他還是照舊這樣干下去。一個人老是這樣蠻橫不講理，還有什麼身分，就是不配來管咱們有身分人，應當滾蛋。
　　咱們向英國人講理，總是不得要領。差不多天天咱們忠告他們，他們那邊那些官僚違法越權，侵犯咱們。咱們老同他們講，咱們是誰，咱們在做什麼事，咱們為什麼過海而來。咱們同他們講公道，告訴他們，如果長此下去，咱們有一天要自己做自己打算，他們才知道利害。但是越和他們講理，越無理可講。可以見得他們不跟咱們一伙兒，就是同咱們為難，咱們就得同他們拚個高低，打完了再做道理。
　　因此，咱們決定，咱們代表十三州府的百姓在議會上議決︰咱們合眾國就是以前的十三州府，從此以後是自由國，照理就早該如此；咱們不認皇上，同他一刀兩斷，再也不听英國人的吩咐；咱們既然自由，自由國能干什麼咱們就能干什麼，尤重要的是宣戰、議和、營商等等。咱們拿聖經罰咒，大家一心一力，有首有尾，不顧利害，不論成敗，不計吉凶，就是財破人亡，到斷頭台上，還是這樣做去。

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4,
1776 THE UNANIMOUS
DECLARATION OF THE
THIRTEEN UNITED
STATES OF AMERAICA

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that they are among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among them, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than t right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity, which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is usurpations, all having in direct object tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.]
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsion within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalizing of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the condition of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent of laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their office, and the amount and payment of their salary.
He has erected a multitude of new officers, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out our substances.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murder which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free systems of English laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule these Colonies;
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely parallel in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petition have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpation, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them., as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled , appealing to the supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United States Colonies and Independent States; that they are absolved by from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

via skygene.blogspot.com

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